Last week at the Rockcliffe Flying Club in Ottawa, over 100 B.F. Goodrich tire dealers and 20 journalists had the opportunity to compare the Winter T/A KSI to its peers. Excitement marked the event all week. Changing weather conditions kept the event teams on their toes and the Red Bull Crashed Ice competitions provided a unique form of entertainment in the evening!

The B.F. Goodrich team carefully selected the Flying Club as a unique opportunity to be right in the City of Ottawa at the same time as the BFG sponsored Crashed Ice event was taking place. For those who have never been, the Flying Club is a runway away from the Canada Aviation and Space Museum which is a must see in Canadian aviation history.

Dealers and journalists had the opportunity to participate in both objective and subjective testing of the new tire to be released in September of 2017. Incidentally, the KSI was developed for the Canadian market showing its prowess in all of the dry, wet, snow and ice.

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The 2017 Mazda 3 GT and the 2017 Honda CRV Touring were used to take the various tires through the paces thanks to Mazda Canada and Honda Canada. Performance Mazda of Orleans, Ontario provided logistics support for the vehicles.

BFG made ice and moved a lot of snow last week! Temperatures went from 10C to -32C (with the wind). The KSI ate it all up.

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Have you ever walked through a pedestrian tunnel complex and wondered how cool it would be to blast around the maze on a bike or maybe a go-kart? Yeah, me too, but then common sense has always prevailed. YouTuber LoganM lives his live unfettered by the confines of common sense, and has a Suzuki DRZ400 and a GoPro at his disposal. Oh, and access to the tunnels at Carleton University in Canada’s capital city.

As one might expect, youth and stupidity make for a pretty cool video.

Unfortunately for Logan, University staff and Ottawa police have seen the video and are on the case according to Metro. I’m no detective, but I’m thinking that tracking this dude down isn’t going to be too difficult, so check out his wild ride, complete with wheelies, before it gets taken down!

It would seem that the video has already been taken down, but you can still see it here

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CALABOGIE, May 15, 2011 Ã¢â‚¬â€œ It was a day of dampness and then sunlight, but when it was all over, Kanata, ON native Perry Bortolotti wound up on the top step of the podium in two decidedly different races.

Bortolotti won both races of the inaugural round of the Porsche GT3 Cup Challenge Canada series in front of an enthusiastic crowd. Bortolotti bested Toronto-based Marco Cirone, who was runner-up in both races as well.

For those hardy enough to brave the elements and who covered the earthen berms that were the grandstands at this natural terrain venue, they saw a classic race Ã¢â‚¬â€œ close, filled with the kind of Ã¢â‚¬Å“will-he-or-wonÃ¢â‚¬â„¢t-heÃ¢â‚¬Â intrigue only a rapidly drying racetrack can produce.

The first race rolled off at 10:00 AM EDT on a track that was still wet. In fact, IMSA had declared it a wet race, requiring all competitors to start the race on Michelin rain tires. At the green flag, thrown at the start by Porsche Cars Canada President and CEO Joe Lawrence, Bortolotti almost immediately drew out an eight-second lead over the second place Cirone.

Ã¢â‚¬Å“Our strategy was pretty clear Ã¢â‚¬â€œ get away early and put as much distance between us and the second place car, then back off and conserve the tires,Ã¢â‚¬Â said Bortolotti. Ã¢â‚¬Å“But while it was a good plan, the track dried way too fast and really started to eat up the tires.Ã¢â‚¬Â

Rain tires are softer and need the cooling effect of wet weather to survive. The rapidly-drying track conditions, owing to a lack of any additional rainfall and a stiff, dry breeze, offered few and then no opportunities to cool down the tires.

Ã¢â‚¬Å“There were no puddles,Ã¢â‚¬Â said second place finisher, Marco Cirone. Ã¢â‚¬Å“And as the tires started to wear down it became slicker and slicker. Finally it was more like a drifting event than a race.Ã¢â‚¬Â[Read more…]

For March break this year, the Grant family did things a bit a bit differently than we have in the past. We went somewhere for a change! In fact, we actually took two road trips. First we piled 4 of us into the 6 passenger Mazda5 for a blast to Niagara Falls and then we loaded all 5 seats of a CX-7 and brought along our 100 lb canine to make like Obama by heading towards Ottawa and the Byward Market.

White is a tough colour choice for many vehicles, as it just doesn’t seem to work on some shapes. When I pulled into Mazda Canada to swap rides, I was stunned by just how incredible the CX-7 looks draped in Crystal White Pearl. From the flowing curves to the shape of the tinted glass, the whole package just looked dead sexy. Certainly hotter looking than most would expect from a family hauler. With chrome accents in just the right places, 18″ alloy wheels and dual stainless tailpipes the CX-7 GT looks much more sport than utility. Surprisingly, Mazda’s smaller of 2 CX’s handles the utility quite nicely too, thank you very much.[Read more…]

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Regular commenter in The Garage, Andre Rousseau drives the sweet Triumph GT6 in the shot above. He writes about life with an aging Triumph at his website GT6.ca and takes some pretty cool photos to go along with it.

Last weekend, Andre and the feisty coupe visited Ottawa’s Vintage Wings to take some pics of the car with the group’s Supermarine Spitfire XVI. Not only is this aircraft the namesake to the Gt6’s roadster sibling, but they are both audibly stunning. For those who’ve never heard a Spitfire, imaging the Triumph’s straight 6 at full song and then multiply it by 100. You might have a sound close to the Rolls Royce Merlin engine found in the British WW2 fighter.

I’ve already wasted some quality time reading the stories at the Vintage Wings website and I expect I’ll be reading for a while yet. There are stories of each aircraft in action and through restoration. Pilot Tim Leslie has a great tale about learning how to use the ejection seat in the Saber they are restoring that came complete with some quotes that could easily apply to racers and minor sports coaches:

“…every pilot has a bag of luck; and a bag of experience. When you start out you have a full bag of luck. However, one day you will reach into your bag of luck and it will be emptyÃ¢â‚¬Â¦ by then you better damn well have a full bag of experience you can fall back on…”

On our next trip to Canada’s capital, we’ll be sure to visit Vintage Wings. We may even have to invite Andre along for another photo shoot!

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Who woulda thought that finding cool automotive stuff would be tough in a thriving city full of tourist stuff like Ottawa? This being my first visit to Ottawa since a grade 8 trip almost 3 decades ago, I had no idea where to look for automotive stuff. There certainly is a ton of great museums, most with a ton of stuff to keep the kids entertained while they are learning.

It was a bit surprising that the most automotive stuff we came across was at the Canadian Museum of Civilization, where we spotted this cool old workhorse. The Canada Hall follows the growth of life in Canada from the 1600’s through to modern day. Along the way, visitors travel through a cool series of villages and buildings all inside a dome that convinces one that they are outside in twilight. Outside a Saskatchewan granary sat the old beast. Very cool.[Read more…]